Mint's POV
I held onto Yua's hand, as I trailed behind him. I could see the way Azure was eyeing us in distaste, but I ignored him and held on tighter to Yua. He looked at me from the corner of his eye, but he didn't say anything, which I was grateful for. I was liking him more and more instead of less and less and this was becoming an issue, but I would honestly panic about it later.
Hell, was, well, it was not what I was expecting. I didn't quite know what I was expecting. No, that was a lie. I did. I was expecting fire and blood and demons, people screaming in pain. But, there just wasn't. Don't get me wrong, there were demons, here and there. Also, they would bow. Every single one had bowed whenever any of the Knights appeared. Even with Azure, Ocean and Cedar being in their human form, of course, Nether feather and Yua were in their demon form. But how did the demons know the other three were also Knights. Did they assume? Or could they sense them? But I had not seen fire yet, nor did I hear the screams of the tortured.
"Where is all the fire? The screaming of the damned? The fire. Where are the demons?" Xavier said as he looked around. "You know?"
"You're holding hands with a demon," Church said, as he pointed at his and Cedar's intertwined hands and Xavier rolled his eyes.
"No, I mean all the stuff we were taught in religious studies. You know, about doing bad things and then going to Hell. This just looks like the area where Feather lives, but better." He looked at his sister, then at Yua and then at me, and then at Church and Nether. "Oh, come on. You're trying to tell me, you're not even the slightest bit disappointed."
"Well," I said, my voice going slightly higher.
"You're in the higher residential area. It's basically where we all live when we're in hell."
"I think you mean where you live," Pride deadpanned. "We," he said, pouting at Sloth and Lust. "And the rest of them. We're all trapped in a house. In the void."
"At least you're allowed to stay alive," Nether spat back. Church flinched at that. Ah, yes. Another reminder that at the end of the day, Nether would leave him. "So, shut the f**k up and stop whining."
"I'm tired," I moaned as I stopped walking. Yua stopped too and raised an eyebrow. "Just give me a minute. I've never walked this much before,” I said, taking a deep breath. I leaned over, putting my hands on my knees and Yua was dragged down with me, so I could die in peace. He looked over at me and made a face and I just waved my hand. I’d be fine, I just needed a second to be dramatic about it.
"You've walked a lot longer than this," Azure deadpanned and I rolled my eyes at him and snorted.
"Have I? Or have I had people giving me piggybacks?"
"I'm proud," Sloth said, she even went as far as to give me a thumbs up, with one hand. Her other was holding onto Mercy, who was looking around with interest.
"What level hell are we on?" Mercy asked as she looked around. I think she was trying to figure out the answer for herself. But she hadn’t gotten anywhere.
"Level?" Feather asked. "The f**k you mean level."
"Yeah, you know, depending on how bad your sins are, you'd be sent to a level in hell. From 1 to 9. Nine is the worst."
"And where did you hear this?" Nether asked.
"Dante's Inferno," Xavier said. "I read it, not going to lie, I liked it."
"There's just no. I'm not even going to answer,” Feather said. Well, I guess they didn’t like what we were being taught at school.
"Yua?" I asked, stopping to look at him. He looked down at me and raised an eyebrow. "Please?"
He sighed and nodded. Let me tell you, it was hard to get onto his back without letting go of his hand. I put my left hand on his chest and let go of his hand. We stopped and looked around, nothing happened. So, I awkwardly dragged my hand across his chest until I was touching his back and he gently lowered himself and I climbed on.
He grabbed onto my thighs and I put my arms around his neck. Now, that I was this much taller, I could definitely see things I hadn't seen before. Like how Church looked like he was contemplating something, he would look over at Nether, open his mouth and then go against whatever it was he wanted to do and look away again.
I could also see Xavier and Cedar. Xavier was holding Cedar's tiny hand in his own huge one. I don't remember exactly when, but these days, Xavier had taken an interest in Cedar and it was well, it was entertaining, to say the least. Maybe it was when we had accidentally bumped into Cedar who was being cornered by some older men. He was weirdly attractive even in his human form. Cedar hadn’t fought back, which I thought was weird. But, I swear, it was from then. Maybe Xavier’s maternal instincts had been awoken. I snickered at that thought.
Yua looked up at me with a look of confusion on his face and I brushed it off.
But, Cedar had eyes on someone else. Honestly, it wasn't even a love triangle, it was like an octagon. Everyone liked someone but that someone liked someone else and that someone else liked someone else. It was a shitshow. Their shitshow of love lives should have been made into a drama. It would be amazingly heartbreaking.
There was more walking, more complaining, mainly by humans. After 20 minutes, I believe. All humans were being carried by their demons. Well, Xavier and Cedar didn't. Church too. I could see him limping, but he had refused to ask Nether to help him. Nether himself kept eyeing him out of the corner of his eye. I eyed Pride and Emory. Pride had his eyes on all of us, and he kept Emory close. Emory himself. Well, he wasn’t freaked out. He was in hell and he wasn’t freaking out.
But really, Emory Hudson, out of all the people we had in school, he chose Emory. Emory, though the quiet weird kid in school. Who before Pride showed up was the bullied kid. But from the look of it, Pride’s power wasn’t affecting Emory at all. He was still the timid and weird kid from before.
"Just climb on," Nether said, after we, well they, had walked for another 20 minutes.
"No." I wonder if Church knew how hard and fast he had fallen for Nether. I mean, he must have known. We all knew it, so surely he knew it too.
But, this, whatever he was doing. He was hurting himself more than protecting himself. Yes, I knew that they would leave, they'd said it themselves. But, why couldn't he just have the happy memories with them now?
Ah, I didn't like the idea of Yua not being there. I swallowed a little lump in my throat and tightened my grip on Yua.
"Church, just get on!"
"I'd rather go to hell."
"You are in Hell."
"Oh. Wait. I'd rather choke."
"I can make that happen," Nether said, as he narrowed his eyes. "Now, get the f**k on so I can float. I hate walking. Or. I leave you."
Church's eyes widened a little. "Leave then!"
"Church," I mumbled.
"Don't f*****g start with me, Mint," he hissed at me. "Lust, come here." Lust complied and walked over to the duo.
Church placed one hand on Lust's arm and as he was about to let go of Nether, Nether grabbed his arm.
"That's not how it works. You'll go crazy." Nether was holding onto Church's arm pretty tight, and by tight, I meant tight, I could see how white his knuckles were from here.
"I'd rather go crazy than have to hold your hand for another second," Church spat back, and I winced a little. Lust, however, looked completely confused. Lust reached out and touched Nether. And then, he looked even more confused. He eyed the duo, Church and then Nether. Nether, then Church.
"Come on! We're almost there. Church, do not let go of Nether. Lust, move away," Azure deadpanned.
Lust moved away and he ran after Azure, they both began talking under their breath and finally, we had arrived. It was like a palace, it was huge.
"You live here?" Mercy asked, shaking Sloth's shoulders. Sloth just made a noise.
The gates opened after Azure stuck his eyes in front of a camera. They made an obnoxiously loud creaking sound.
"This place looks exactly the same," Pride grumbled.
"Yep! Good to be back." Lust said. He let his eyes wander, he stretched a little and walked in.
"Not for long," Sloth chimed in.
"Don’t remind me," Pride muttered. He was eyeing everything in distaste. I wanted to say that there was a fountain in the middle of the, was this a courtyard, but it wasn't water. It could have been wine, could have been blood. But, I swear, it was red.
We all walked inside and this place, it was, it was definitely something. The main thing I had noticed was the colour scheme; red and black. It was everywhere.
"Oh, great," someone said as they walked in. They had short black hair and bright purple eyes, with black-rimmed glasses and I'm assuming this was a male, he was holding a book. "You're back." He eyed all of us and then narrowed his eyes on Church, he tilted his head and smiled a little. "Ah, so, he's the one-"
"No. Shut the f**k up, Orion," Nether hissed.
"You're so nice to me," Orion said, as he eyed all of us.
"Where's Lucifer?" Pride asked. He was still in his gold chains, no one trusted him. But Emory was clinging to him, Church and I eyed one another and then shrugged. "I want to speak to him about this." He put his hands in the air, his handcuffs rattling and Orion didn't even try and hide his smirk.
"Looks like they cuffed you down like the psycho b***h you are," Orion said. Pride just raised his chin a little and scoffed.
"I have 3 of the seven," Azure said, as he eyed everyone in the room. I don't think this was even a room. It was just a massive opening in the house.
"That's not all of them," a purple-haired lady said as she appeared. "Hello, brothers."
"Yo, she's kinda hot," Church said as he eyed the purple-haired lady.
"Kinda my aunt," I deadpanned, glaring at Church, who made a face and looked away. Nether ran his tongue on the inside of his mouth.
"Lucifer! Your other spawns are here!" Someone else yelled, as they too walked in and I had to do a double-take because they looked exactly like Yua.
"Yua!" They yelled, he took a step towards us and then stopped. "Wait, who's that on your back?" I felt Yua's grip on me tighten, ever so slightly.
"f**k off, Ira," Feather hissed.
Ira took a step towards Yua, who took two steps backwards. This kept going and Yua was beginning to panic. "Yua," I said and he didn't reply, his grip just tightened.
In less than a second, Feather was in front of Yua and me, a knife towards Ira's throat. "Take another step and I'll kill you." Oh, it was like watching a twink threaten Yua and it was technically a twink threatening Yua.
The thought of that made me snicker a little. Yua raised an eyebrow at me and turned to look at me. I simply looked away, slightly red. f**k, he was so pretty.
Feather and Ira began to argue. Lust began yelling at Orion. Pride was pissing off Ocean by ignoring him. But when Ocean got a little too close to Emory, Pride let his eyes glow and Ocean was sent flying across the room. Nether kept trying to get Church's attention. Xavier and Cedar were talking but well, lowkey arguing with Sloth and Mercy. The purple-haired lady, whose name was Mira, was watching everyone too.
But see, when Lust and Orion were arguing, someone else walked in. A male, this male has blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked human, and when I got a closer look at him, I was pretty sure he was human. He eyed all of us, sighed and then walked over to Orion, grabbing him by the waist and just kissing him. They were roughly the same height, but the blonde could have had a few inches on Orion. But see, them making out pissed Lust off even more, especially when it seemed like they would never stop.
So, basically, it was chaos.
"Yua, who is he and why does he look like you? You don't have actual blood-related siblings," I said, and Yua made a face. He grabbed my hand and I was very awkwardly holding onto him. He wrote a few letters in my hand. L-A-T-E-R.
Oh, he'd tell me later. Yes, okay. I was fine with that.
"Why are you all yelling- PRIDE! You son of a b***h!" Someone else walked in this time, a female. She had long red hair that was definitely straighter than me. And her blue eyes, I mean they were huge and blue and she had dark, dark, skin. She was stunning. The moment she saw Pride, she went to strangle him.
"London! Don't strangle Pride!" Cedar yelled, a little startled. But then again, the moment she got close to them and Emory flinched, she was also sent flying across the room.
See, it was chaos until someone else walked in. I somehow felt overwhelmed. f**k. The others must have too as all four of us paled. Even Orion stopped kissing the blonde to just eye the male.
"Knock it off!" Nether hissed, as he held closer onto Church.
"Yua," I mumbled. "Yua, I don't feel well." I groaned a little, oh, this was overwhelming whatever it was. I groaned a little, resting my head on Yua's shoulder. I felt him move his neck a little and he rubbed his head against mine.
"Lucifer!" Azure yelled. "You're hurting them!"
"Oh, my bad, sorry."
Lucifer was this man, he was so f*****g tall, like 7ft, no, maybe even taller. He was just huge. And he was built? Like stupidly built but not hideously so either. He was also probably the most handsome person I had ever met.
I mean, his black hair looked incredibly soft, and it was framing his face. His eyes! Did I mention he had beautiful eyes? They were blood red! Blood. Red. He was in all black clothes, a suit! He was in a suit! Since when did the devil wear a suit?
"Guys! Guys!" Mercy hissed. "Guess what?"
"What?" Xavier said. He looked at Lucifer once and then looked away and his grip on Cedar tightened. Well, I think it did. Well, he looked at his sister.
"The devil wears Parada! I repeat, the devil wears Parada!" she whisper- hissed.
"Please, tell me I'm not the only one a little scared but definitely turned on," Church muttered, as he looked around at us.
"Before either of you answer, please remember, that's my grandad," I said. In all honesty, I hadn't taken my eyes off of him since he walked in.
"I'll be your grandmother then," Mercy muttered.
"So, which one's my grandkid and which one am I testing?"
"I'm your grandkid," I said, putting my arm up a little. Ira took a step forward and Yua glared, taking a step backwards. He nudged me and I tightened my arms around him.
"Ira, leave them alone," Lucifer said.
"I'm the one you are testing," Church said, as he also awkwardly put his hand up. Nether grabbed his hand, roughly pushing it back to his side.
"No. You're not testing him."
"Well, that's the whole reason I came to hell," Church spat again.
"Knights, you've been here less than 10 minutes and you're all already arguing with your siblings?!" The knights all started yelling and pointing fingers at each other.
"I don't care!" he yelled. "All of you go to your rooms! If you're going to act like kids, I'll treat you like kids. Put the humans in one room together. Mira, London, Orion you've said hi. Get lost, Orion, take your puppy with you." I'm assuming he meant the blonde-haired male.
"Don't call him a puppy!" Orion hissed. Orion grabbed the blonde's hand and dragged him away.
"No. No. The humans aren't being put in another room. Church is coming with me," Nether deadpanned. "How do I know he won't just leave and get f*****g tested?"
"Oh, then Mercy can come with me," Sloth said as she grinned at Mercy.
"Wait, no. I don't want to share a room with you!" Church spat, glaring at Nether.
"Church, share the room. You two need to talk," I said, and Church scowled at me.
"No. With a heart," he replied, and he even drew a heart in the sky with his pointer fingers and I groaned at his childishness.
"How can we share a room if we're not allowed to let go of our emotional demon?" Mercy said, and Lucifer made a face. I don't know what sort of face it was, but he made it.
He ran a hand through his hair and walked over to Mercy. "This will hurt. A lot." He then rubbed his fingers together and, using his pointing finger, he tapped the middle of her forehead.
Mercy hissed a little as she clammed up, a cold sweat on her face and grabbed onto Sloth. "Oh, nice. She handled that well."
He did the same to Church. However, a few seconds later, he let out a sob as he turned around and clung to Nether, the duo crashed onto the ground and Nether just cradled a crying Church close.
"Ooh, yeah, kid. It deals with everyone differently," Lucifer said as he eyed the two of them on the floor.
When he got to Xavier, he hesitated a little.
Xavier narrowed his eyes on Lucifer. "I know you. Why the f**k do I know you?”
He eyed Xavier, who didn't back down and glared right back. Lucifer did the thing and to my surprise, Xavier paled a lot, before crashing forward where Lucifer barely caught him.
Cedar went on the ground and I swear Lucifer reluctantly let Xavier onto the ground, beside Cedar, who grabbed his hand.
Oh, now that I thought about it, it meant that I couldn't hold onto Yua now. I frowned a little at the thought. But still, when I felt Lucifer's cold hand on my forehead, I froze and, to my surprise, I didn't feel anything.
"You're a part demon. I don't need to do the full thing I did with the rest." He said and I simply nodded and I was going to act like I knew what he was talking about.
When it was Emory’s turn, he had the most extreme reaction, in my opinion. “It burns!” he screamed. See, he was crying and screaming about how whatever Lucifer did was burning his insides out.
Cedar went over to him, he tried to help him but instead, Emory started screaming some more.
Pride pushed Cedar away, glaring at him. “What the f**k did you do to him?”
“It was supposed to help him,” Cedar said. Ocean stormed over and grabbed Pride.
“Don’t f*****g touch Cedar like that or I'll kill you myself. Do I make myself clear?”
Pride didn’t bother to acknowledge him as he went back to trying to help Emory.
“Help me, please,” he whispered as he clung to Pride’s collar and then he fainted right on top of him.
“Well, then. That’s interesting,” Lucifer said. “I want to take him. I also want to test him.”
“Are you out of your f*****g mind,” Pride hissed, as he brought Emory’s unconscious body closer to him. He was clinging to him.
“That’s not a reaction you’re supposed to have if you’re human. The other three had normal reactions. He didn’t.”
“He’s not human,” Feather said, as he eyed pride. “Or at least not fully.”
“They’re right,” Cedar said. “He’s not. He should have accepted me trying to heal him fine. But he didn’t. I use demon energy. The only people it’s supposed to burn are angels or Nephilim.”
“He’s not a Nephilim,” Pride hissed. Oh my god, he didn’t know that Emory was a Nephilim.
“He is,” I said. Was he being a Nephilim the reason I didn't like him? Not to be speciest and all, but no. It was more of the fact that he killed a demon. So, he was being speciest. Not me.
“I thought we promised him we’d keep it a secret,” Church hissed, glaring at me and I shrugged.
I shrugged and he sighed. “He’s a Nephilim, Pride. Haven’t you noticed how he’s not affected by your powers in the slightest? He’s still weak, timid and weird, Emory.”
“You f*****g watch your mouth. I won’t hesitate to f*****g kill you,” Pride spat.
“You f*****g watch how you speak to Mint,” Feather spat.
“You’re all giving me a headache and you haven’t even been here for an hour yet. We know he’s a Nephilim. Keep him close and do not let him wander off.”
“What? You’re not going to treat him like a lab rat?” Nether asked, glaring at Lucifer.
“No? I know what he is. Mystery solved. Is this about Church?” he said. “We don’t know what he is. That’s why I’m trying to figure it out. He’s not a lab rat, calm down.”
"Put the humans in their own rooms," Lucifer repeated. Nether made a noise from the back of his throat and Lucifer sighed. "Fine! If you have a demon buddy you can crash with them."
Nether ignored Church's swears as he dragged him away. Some demons watched in curiosity. I wouldn't lie, it was a pretty entertaining sight.
The rest of us got our own separate rooms. Well, no, that was a lie. Ocean was glaring at where Nether and Church had been standing, and Cedar watched him, but when I looked at Xavier, he was looking at Cedar.
"I'm sharing with Cedar," Xavier said, his voice sounding a little rough as he cleared his throat.
"No, I'll er, I'll share with," his voice quietened down, he gave one glance to Ocean, and then his face went a little red. "Myself. I want a room for myself."
Xavier scowled a little but didn't argue with it. He watched as Cedar quickly left, mumbling under his breath.
Xavier just nodded to himself a little. He exhaled and looked around a little.
"Well, Sins. Go with Azure, he'll take you to your floor. Say, bye kids, this is the last time you'll be seeing them."
"Wait, what? No?!" I sort of yelled just as Lust looked like he was about to absolutely murder Lucifer.
"I promised Lust he could stay and help us find Wrath. Plus, it's easier to find others when we have the ones we need. They end up helping us whether they want or not. Plus, I don’t want to be the one to tell Pride he can’t have Emory," I said.
"No, we don't," Lust said, making a face.
"Yes, you do, shut up," I deadpanned. I glared at him and made a face trying to tell him to shut up so I could help him.
Lucifer looked around and he eyed us.
"I still don't know if I'm scared or if I'm turned on," Mercy said.
"I'll let the Sins lounge around Hell."
"Yes!" I yelled. That was good, although Azure didn't seem too happy.
"But?" he said, and Lucifer looked surprised. "Oh, don't give me that look, I know you."
"Oh, fine," Lucifer said. Oh, this man was something else entirely. When I first met the knights I was scared, but Lucifer, he was something else.
"I want him." He pointed at Xavier, who just looked unimpressed.
"Absolutely not," Mercy hissed. "You are not taking my brother."
"Do I have a choice?" Xavier asked, as he looked over at Lucifer, who just smiled. Xavier looked over at me and then at the Sins and sighed.
"Fine, yeah, whatever."
"Xavier!" Mercy hissed. "What the f**k are you doing? That is the devil! The f*****g devil. I will kill you!"
"You were the one who said we should go introduce ourselves to the neighbours. This is all on you!" He shot back. "I said no, we should mind our own business!"
"That's not fair," she said.
"Really! Cause we've been pretty stuck in the middle of all of this since we knocked on their front door."
"He's right you know," I said and she glared at me and I sighed. "Sorry."
"I'll go with him, the worst thing he can do is kill me." Xavier eyed Lucifer and walked over to him. Lucifer seemed happy with that and he gave another closed-eyed smile. Oh, so that’s how cedar got the closed eye smile thing. I thought they would have left together, but no, Lucifer just said there, Xavier looked like a small thing next to him.
Oh, looking at their height difference and just different in general, was so amusing.
"You know what? Everyone just f**k off, just go to your rooms," Azure said as he rubbed the middle of his eyes. "I'm done with everyone for the day."
"Wait, no," Lust said as he looked over at Azure.
"Can we go to the surface? Please, help me find Wrath. It doesn't have to be all of us, just me and you. Please, I want to find him."
Azure looked over at me and I frowned a little. What did I have to do with this?
"I'll help you, Lust. Just not now. If Mint is staying in Hell, I'm not leaving him here alone."
"No, I'm not alone," I said. "I have Yua. And Church, Xavier and Mercy. You should help Lust. All he's done is try and help us find the other Sins and-"
"Flirt," Mercy said.
"Oh, yeah, lots of that," I said.
"He tried to sleep with me too," Mercy said as she popped a bubble she had made with her gum.
"You what?!" Feather yelled, glaring at Lust.
"Oh it’s fine, I've checked the twins are both of legal age," he said as he rolled his eyes. He looked around and rubbed the back of his neck. "Would now be a bad time to say I've also slept with one of the twins?"
"Xavier?!" Mercy yelled.
"Oh, calm down, it was a one-time thing." Lucifer, however, raised an eyebrow at this and awkwardly cleared his throat too. He turned on his heel and left and Xavier groaned as he rolled his eyes and also walked away, in the same direction that Lucifer had gone.
"Fine, yeah. We can go to the surface Lust. But we're coming to hell, regularly."
"So, we're going to ignore the fact that Lust slept with Xavier!?"
"Yes. He's a big boy, he can sleep with whoever he wants."
"And the fact that Lucifer?! The actual devil, the red horned guy!?" Mercy yelled, waving her arms around.
"He's not red," I said. Well, he wasn't.
"He is horny," Lust said though. "Oh, don't give me that look."
"Guys. Lucifer just left with my brother!"
"Oh, he'll be fine."
~*~
"Yua, who's Ira and why does he look like you?" I asked.
He cleared his throat as he made himself comfortable on the floor and took a position as if ready to meditate. No, not as if, he was.
"Yua," I whined.
"He is one of Lucifer's blood children."
"I know that, but why does he look like you!?"
"I do not know."
"You don't know?"
"Yes, I do not know. Nor do I want to know."
"Well, that's a lie, so, come on, spill."
"Mint," he said, and I rolled my eyes as he looked up at me.
"Using that tone doesn't scare me, so tell me."
"I do not want to speak of it."
"Yua," I said and his hand trembled a little, he clenched his fist but I saw it, his eyes also flashed. Wait, f**k, no.
"Wait, Yua, I'm sorry, I won't ask again, I promise. I'm sorry." I sat down in front of him and he just gave me a small smile.
Yua simply nodded, but I think I f****d up because that entire night, he didn't speak a word to me.
~*~