Epilogue

Epilogue

Bonnie

Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry

“Is he dead? Is my rapist dead?” Kelsie asked as she smacked her lips and the annoying clap of her gum flittered around me.

I cringed, cranking my neck as the feeling of irritation at the sound washed over me.

“What about my mother? Did you kill her?” Aime shouted over Kelsie with a bratty attitude that had me rolling my eyes. In the afterlife, her disabilities were gone. She stood before me in shit kicker Doc Martins, cut-off boy shorts and a crop top that showed a little too much flesh. By the time her mother killed her, she had just reached sixteen.

Why was she in Hell?

Because the fun fact is, we get to choose.

There was no heaven, given the fact that God was a figment of the human imagination created to help them find the strength not to fear the Devil that lurks beneath their feet. Like a holy savior, you’d tell your kids about at bedtime, to stop them screaming that the boogeyman was going to jump out if the closet and eat them.

Truth was, there was only the veil between worlds called the cosmic plane, or you have down here.

Hell.

Burning in shit loads of fun.

In the cosmic plane, you were basically still on earth, moping around like some deranged and lonely fool, where nobody could see you and interaction was impossible. You became a ghost or some other kind of freaky shit if you became powerful enough like a poltergeist.

I killed her mother at her request and her sweet payment was hellfire, in the exact same way she had dreamed of killing her for all of those years she was under the hand of her torture. So I guess you could add impure thoughts to the list if you really needed a reason that made sense to the simplicity of a human mind.

“What about Dale? Is that fucker dead? I hope you skinned him exactly how I asked!” Robbie grunted, a sick excitement bright in his usually dull serial killer eyes.

“Not exactly,” Clyde answered. “He looked at my woman so I had to improvise.”

“What?” He scoffed in outrage. “That was not the fucking deal, man.” He stepped toward Clyde and lifted his arm, fist clenched and just as he swung, I was there, shattering his bones as they crumbled in my palm. He hissed, a small cry of pain leaving him as I shoved him away from me as he pulled his broken hand into a cradle against his chest.

“If you wanted it done right, you should have gone up top yourself, asshole,” I stated in a bored tone, daring him to come at me next.

He widened his eyes and recoiled in disgust. “Fuck no. Hell is much more fun, why the two of you like going up there so much is fucking insane. All those burdens? All the heavy shit? The turmoil and human emotion? No, fuck that. Down here, it’s simple. There is no anguish just a lot of pussy and some fun, fucking, fun!” He smirked as he danced his shoulders and flexed his hips.

“Then shut the fuck up.” I smirked and he smirked back with a wink of conceit in his eyes.

“Seriously, though. Are they all dead? Did you kill the cannibal? That fucking prick actually had the nerve to say my pussy was too chewy. Like what the fuck? He degrades and mutilates me and then complains my cunt isn’t tender enough? He’s the fucking cunt, I’ll tell you that much,” Alex rampaged as she folded her arms across her slight chest.

Robbie looked at her, a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Well, babe. I can definitely say that pussy tastes just right.” She punched him in the arm and he chuckled like a dumb jock even though he was far from it.

“You paid, we provided and we sure as fuck had fun doing it. Everyone has been murdered as per your request and hand-delivered to the Devil himself. You can go watch their torture once they go through processing.

Another fun fact?

Hell was also kinda like a prison for the bad folk up on earth.

All those bastards we killed? They get sent to Devil’s County. Satan’s best demons will then book ‘em, process them, toss them into their respective cells, then open their screens to the audience who are able to watch their execution.

Over.

And.

Over.

Again.

For all of eternity. Sweet fucking bliss.

We could also buy those souls for the right price and enslave them.

Lockie was good to us like that.

Aime jumped in place as she clapped her hands. “Fuck yes. I’ve been saving for this. That cunt-bitch is mine!”

Then we all dispersed and I kissed Clyde with a passion that defied the very flames of Hell and moved toward the dance floor after our welcome home.

“Crazy Bitch” by Buckcherry echoed around the pit in central Hell. I danced, moving my hips to the bass that echoed around me, smacking my lips as I chewed on a piece of gum and picked my nails with the end of my blade.

It wasn’t as annoying when I did it.

Souls who chose the fires of Hell partied, writhing against one another in a concoction of wild desire and unbridled lust with a shit ton of manic energy. The crowd roared, thundering down heavy footsteps as they cheered.

The blood bar extended for miles, circling the perimeter of purgatory as souls lined up and got their drinks, ready to settle in for the fight they’d all been waiting for.

The crowd bellowed in excitement, savage and primal as Satan—Lockie’s best demon—stepped into the ring. His nine-foot frame towered over Clyde who lounged, slack, up against the walls of the pit. He looked bored, but he felt anything but. I knew that, just as well as I knew myself.

Electricity ran through his veins as he waited to put on a show—a once-in-a-undead-lifetime—kind of show.

“Wooo!” I screamed. “That’s my sugar, you kick his ass, baby!”

“Like he stands a chance. Ronagorg is Lockie’s best demon!” Rory uttered in outrage as he turned eyes of fury onto me. The crowd closed in around me, the crowd that had dedicated themselves as our entourage.

Down here, we were kind of a big deal.

The underling King and Queen of the damned souls if you will.

I huffed, not at all intimidated by the hostility that approached me, from this low level demon and also Ronagorg’s horn buddy. “You clearly don’t know my baby. Clyde will wipe the floors of Hell with Ronagorg’s face, then cheers us all to a round of his blood. Don’t worry though, as his lover, I’m sure Clyde will give you the first shot.” Indifferently I turned, taking away all of my attention with me. That infuriated the asshole who charged me with a clenched fist, not at all prepared for me to pull out a cut-down, semi-auto Remington Model 11 shotgun and blew a hole through his chest, sending his body skittering back to the ringside, where Clyde smirked at me with a vicious, predatory kind of smile.

Arousal pooled in my core and I shuddered, excited to see this fight through to the end so I could take my man home and show him exactly what he meant to me.

“Hey, Bon?” Tyler asked as he approached where I danced without care, not at all affected by what just happened.

The men and demons that swore their allegiance to me and Clyde, tighten their circle around me, even from the prince of Hell, all until I waved them off and reached for my whisky. “Let him through,” I demanded. “Yes?”

“I know you just got back, but I was wondering, has anyone hired you for next All Hallows’?” he asked as he slunk himself into the seat beside me, elbows on the bar as he scanned the rowdy crowd who worshiped Clyde, but nowhere near as much as I did.

Down here, we had subsectors.

Different neighborhoods if you like.

Humans in one half of Hell, demons and other magical creatures in the other. And every single night, our worlds would cross as fights took place in the communal area we called the pit. It was the hot-spot hangout. Booze, women, men, and a fuck ton of entertainment and a chasm of sweaty sex. Although, our worlds would cross more than you would think, especially if a demon plucked one of the souls of the auction they are privy to of the human souls that get reaped or straight out of Devil’s County itself.

Tyler cracked his neck, an excited chill skated down his spine as anticipation lit within his blue eyes, it was almost contagious, but I was off duty for the year.

“You know how it is, the second we step one foot in the grave the hounds descend, we’ve had more than a few approach us.” I mused as I took a hefty sip of whisky, my eyes trained on Clyde’s who watched me like a man in starvation.

“Figured as much, but listen. I’ll triple the highest bid of Hell’s Fire and I’ll throw in four of my best men for you and Clyde to carve up. They’re screamers,” he bargained and I turned assessing eyes on him as I thought about it.

“How quickly do they heal?” I asked.

Down here, everybody heals. Even that asshole I just blew away and Hell’s fire? It was demon currency in strength. There is a reason we’re so powerful and can be seen when we come back from the dead. Others, if not shot up on the stuff, could only show themselves for small periods of time.

“They differ, but they’d last long enough to suit your fancy.”

“Quadruple the Hell’s Fire, give me ten of your best men and throw in an invitation to the castle for Lockie’s birthday. Clyde’s is not long after the Devil’s and he’s always wanted to party with the Devil.”

He looked at me and frowned. “You know he’s my brother right?”

“Right.”

“So, that is an easy one,” he added. “Plus, you get invited every year, I don’t know why you have to even ask. You bring him the most souls he’s ever had down here.”

“Never expected it to be difficult,” I chuckled as I stood to my feet. “But I do expect you to go beg Lockie to go all out and do a grand gesture with the invitation. I know it will piss you off to have to ask anything from him, so it’s the cherry on my cake.”

“You’re an evil bitch, you know that? This year he’s bringing out the Queen succubus, you sure you want your man around that?”

“So I heard. Do you really think even a powerful whore could make my man stray?”

He looked back at Clyde and broke into a deep laugh. “Yeah, no. He would take her head and give her heart to the nearest perve to fuck while he told you all about it. You two are die-hard. Literally, considering you died together.”

I scoffed a small laugh and rolled my eyes. “How original. What could you possibly need us for anyway? You know what our gig is. Anyone on earth you wanted to be killed, you could do it with the snap of your fingers.”

“Yeah, well this is a game you see. One between me and Lockie. We have pawns up there, humans possessed with our best demons living like they are normal and shit. Thing is, that’s part of the game. Staying hidden from the one who hunts you. So I need the two of you to sniff ‘em’ out, take ‘em’ out, and then declare I had absolutely everything to do with it. That… would be death-mate. I would have kicked his ass for the millionth time.”

“You two are nuts, you know that?”

“Isn’t that half the fun, doll.” He smirked and I grinned at him. “These demons, they fuck shit up. Despite living as humans and shit, they appear as the worst kind. So right up your justice street. The deplorable things they do will be perfect for the fucked-up sex games you two play.”

“Those in glass houses, Tyler,” I scorned in a singsong voice that had him grinning from ear to ear.

“Will come on the shards of glass that stab them when it shatters, I know, I know. I need to hurry up and break mine.”

“You warped fucker.” I laughed.

“Hey, heads up. Your man is about to kick some ass.”

We both turned toward the pit, Ronagorg roared and Clyde blew out a cloudy breath from his cigarette. He was still looking at me, those dark eyes filled with love, lust, and desire. My heart fluttered and I smirked because as soon as Ronagorg charged him, Clyde punched through his chest, ripped out his heart, and blew a cloud of smoke in his face.

Never having looked away from me once.

He’s ride or die.

He’s fucking King.

If you looked through all of the murders, you’d have noticed this is just our life after, fucked up and twisted, deplorable love story.

The End