The Demonic Trio (Complete)

Part 1

A goat's head effigy hung in the shadows above a towering metal door. Its hollow eyes watched a crooked box-shaped elevator ascended into a darkened abyss plummeting like an atomic bomb. Through the hurtling descent, the elevator crashed into the tower's main floor, still maintaining its sturdy shape. The doors finally opened and two young girls stepped onto the hellish landscape. The pair stood outside the tower as the flashing neon letters gave an ominous greeting above, "Inferno Tower."

The eldest girl approached the large metal door and gave a loud knock, which echoed throughout the Inferno. "Hello?" She cried out and waited.

The once lifeless, metallic eyes of the goat head blinked in response to the child's pleas. Its lead mouth bayed out a haunting yawn and bent its heavy neck down to gaze at the guests. The head then spoke, "What brings you to our domain, mortals?"

"Dude, it's us!" Rosemary said, clutching her little sister's hand. "Open up!"

"Nobody gets to see the wizard not nobody not nohow!" The goat head hissed.

"Dude, come on," Rosie said. The reference made her and her sister laugh. "You've been using that Wizard of Oz quote every time we show up."

"Hey, it isn't called a classic for nothing." It chuckled. "Sorry girls, but the boss is busy at the moment."

"OK, I get it." Rosie said. Her smile then grew sly. "I guess we'll wait out here, but our stepfather is expecting us. I'd sure hate to be the one to keep his stepdaughters waiting so long out where any dangerous thing could potentially happen, and I'm sure he'd be very unhappy if said bad things were to happen."

"Oh," The head gulped. "Well when you put it that...alright, hold one a sec! Door's opening up."

The doorway started opening. Rosemary and her little sister Regan hurried inside, thanking the gatekeeper for their entry. They continued to walk down the corridors of the massive corporate building that led to their stepfather's office.

"But Lu isn't expect us, Rosie?" Regan pointed out as she held her big sister's hand.

"I know." Her sister said. "We're just going to hang out at Lu's office, do some homework, and derp around until he gets off work."

"I think you scared him." Regan said.

"Nah, I just fibbed and teased a little." Rosemary concurred. "No harm in that."

The pair then paused in their tracks as an ominous, toothy grin blocked their path. Attached to the grin was a face of a creature more reptilian than man with black, scaly skin, serpent-like nostrils, and hollow, greedy green eyes. Small horns punctured through the hood of its unzipped hoodie, exposing its muscly torso. The most unusual feature the stranger had were chains that coiled around his arms like snakes.

"Hello." The stranger finally spoke.

"Um, what's up." Rosie stuttered.

"Name's Balthazar." The figure said again. His gnarled hand extended out.

"R-Rosemary." Rosemary said, uncomfortably shaking the demon's hand. "This is my little sister, Regan."

"Rosemary and Regan." He repeated. "Someone must've liked some scary movies with demons in them, huh?"

"Yeah, we get that a lot." The eldest sister nervously chuckled.

"Tell me," Balthazar continued. "What's a couple of small, innocent mortals like yourselves doing down in a dark, corrupted place like this?"

"We're here to see our stepfather," Rosie said. "You may know him as the Devil."

"Oh yeah. That's right!" Another eerie voice said from behind, forcing the Gravely sisters to jump from their spot. They both turned to face another grueling face. This time it looked like a melted skeleton, the muscles and tendons peeled away exposing the skull beneath. This demon was much skinnier than his comrade. Practically skeletal underneath his black, leather jacket and biker jeans. "I remember the boss gettin' hitched."

"How do you remember anything?" Balthazar smiled. "We showed up to that wedding and drank all their alcohol."

"Yeah," The second demon laughed. "Man, those humans sure throw a helluva party. I'm Ghuul by the way."

"Right," Rosemary nodded. "Well it was nice meeting you, but we really have to get going."

"Where you off to in a hurry?" Ghuul asked, circling the sisters like a hunting shark. "Ain't you want to be friends?"

"You two are scaring us." Regan mumbled.

"Ah, don't be like that," Balthazar said. "We're just the welcoming committee. We don't want to keep ya waiting on the boss, so we'll just collect our fee and you can head off."

"Fee?" Rosie gasped.

"But we always come here for free!" Regan pouted.

"Ah oh!" The pair echoed, both giving cruel smiles. Thunderous booms rocked the ground beneath them. Each boom grew louder and closer towards the girls. They turn and look upon a giant approaching the group. The hulking demon was built with bulging red muscles, bare chest, and wore only moldy, grey pants. Every lumbering step from the demon's hoofed feet shook the tower all over. His face was more monstrous looking than his companions with rage red eyes, gnarled sharp teeth, bull-like snout, and massively large horns crowned above his brows.

The demonic minotaur stopped in front of the group, cracking his knuckles against his brutish palm. He bent down before the girls and gave a ominous growl. "No freebies."

"Big guy here is named Moloch." Ghuul said. "He's not one for small talk, unless you count his fists."

"But we don't want any trouble right now." Balthazar interrupted. "Tell you what, we'll let you off with a warning and a pass. Don't get too comfortable with that. We like to get money one way or another."

"Right," Rosie said, tightly hold her sister's hand. "We should get going. Let's go, Regan."

The Gravely sisters darted away the demonic trio as fast as they could. They reached for another elevator and ascended up, fearfully staring back at the three demons waved them a goodbye.

"What a nice bunch of kids." Balthazar grinned.

"You think we scared them a little too much." Ghuul asked.

"Nah, just fibbed and teased a little. No harm in that."

Part 2

The girls raced out of the elevator as fast as they could. They both stopped in the middle of the office space, panting from their frantic encounter of the horrid demonic trio they met earlier.

"That was too close." Rosemary said.

"I don't like those demons." Regan said. "They were scary."

"Whose scary, loves?" A sweet voice asked from behind the girls.

The Gravely sisters screamed and jumped. They twisted around to find themselves face to face with a more gracious smile. This smiling face was wore by a very beautiful woman with purple skin and hair. Her lavender eyes blinked the girls a warm welcome. While the only inhuman features about her was her rows of sharp teeth that gleamed healthy and short pointed ears, she looked more human than her demon brethren. The sisters released a relieved sigh as they recognized their stepfather's succubus secretary and their favorite babysitter, Lilith.

"Oh, it's you Lilith." Rosemary said.

"Nice to see you too." Lilith said. "Waiting for your pops?"

"Yeah, if it's cool with you." Regan chimed in.

"By all means." Lilith happily said. "He's in a meeting right now, but your more than welcome hang with me."

The Gravely sisters joined their babysitter to her desk, enjoying each other's company. For the next hour, the girls talked to the sexy secretary about their school as she eagerly listened. Then Rosemary continued on working at her homework while Lilith and Regan shared drawings together.

"Look!" Regan cheered. She flashed her artwork before the others with accomplished pride. Her paper was littered with various scribbles of blues, yellows, reds, and lots of blotches of pinks. "I drew a family of unicorns!"

"That looks wonderful, love." Lilith praised. She sadly gazed down at her own drawing, which showed a very wildly colored and detailed recreation of The Birth of Venus. "I wish I was a great artist like you. Don't forget to carry the two, Rosie."

"Thanks." Rosemary said, correcting her assignment. "You know I was learning some stuff about mythology in my history class, and your name actually came up. It said that you were referred to as the Mother of All Demons."

"Aw, I did miss the old nicknames." Lilith said.

"Are you a mommy, Lilith?" Regan asked. "You act like a mommy."

"Sorry, love, I'm nobody's mommy at the moment." Lilith laughed. She then playfully rubbed the youngest Gravely's golden hair. "I got that name because I tend to act like everyone's mother down here."

The sound of flapping wings directed the ladies' attention to the far end of the room. There they all saw the small, pudgy, bat-like demon, Scrugs, flutter by and waved. "Need those papers, Lilith?"

"Yup." Lilith confirmed. "Now next time speak clearly when you talk. And also don't hunch like that. You'll hurt your back.

"Thanks, mom." Scrugs teased sarcastically. His teased distracted him from seeing one of the granite pillars in front as he collided into it. Scrugs plopped down from the crash course and felt dizzy. His wings helped him up and he fluttered again outside. The three girls laughed at the poor underling's clumsiness.

"Also, be sure to watch where you're flying, deary." Lilith reminded, waving a playful goodbye.

"You're really nice, Lilith." Regan said. "A lot nicer than those bullies downstairs."

"What bullies, deary?" Lilith asked.

The girls then heard a vicious cackle that echoed into the office space. "Hey Moloch! Do the thing again!"

The trio rushed to the large window and peered over the foundry section of Inferno Tower. Down below they saw the same three demons Rosemary and Regan had met earlier. Ghuul and Balthazar stood there laughing as the massive Moloch stirred his hand into molten tar. Scrugs fluttered by the trio, carrying a large stack of papers in his small arms.

"Hey Scrugs!" Balthazar called out. "High five!"

Scrugs paused and then shrugged. He placed the papers down and happily flew over with his hand stretched for a receiving high five. Moloch pulled his tar-heated hand out and slapped it against Scrugs' palm. Scrugs let out a painful yelp as his hand burned and blistered like it was placed on the sun's surface. The trio laughed tremendously as the smaller demon waved his hand around in little efforts to cool it off. Their infectious laughs even caused the sweet Lilith to chuckle.

"Oh don't worry about those three. They do love their jokes and pranks but they really are just harmless."

"Na, ah!" Regan protested. "They're a bunch of meanies!"

"Not true." Lilith calmly stated. "Balthazar personally volunteered to be the DJ at your parents' wedding. Ghuul's got a habit of knitting the most comfortable sweaters you'd ever seen. Even ol' Moloch's a loving family man with twenty-three kids of his own.

"Yeah right." Rosemary groaned. "They wanted money from both of us."

"Is that so?" Lilith said, now leering at the trio of jesters. "Excuse me, dearies. I'll be right back."

Lilith walked down and disappeared down the stairway. The girls shrugged at each other wondering what their babysitter had in store. Just then their stepfather finally stepped out of his office and walked towards his new daughters. His smile was ever more sinister than before.

"Phew, election year." The devil said. "Always the busiest time of the year. Yet it doesn't matter who wins, I always win in the end."

"Can we go home now?" Regan asked, giving her maniacal stepfather warm hug around his legs.

"Sure, sure, kiddo." Lu confirmed. "Wait...what's going on here?"

"Ello girls." Lilith's voice cried out. "I think these three have something they'd like to say."

All three Gravelys turned towards the stairway to see Lilith back in front of them. This time, she was accompanied by the demonic trio, whose ears are all violently clutched by her small hands. The demonic trio squirmed as their ears felt like they were clung to cold vice grips.

"Heh-ay!" Balthazar spoke first. "Uh, we'd just wanted to say sorry if our teasing and joking may have scar-aw-ared a little."

"We-eeh meant no harm." Ghuul followed. "Just a bit of fun. We think you're a nice lot, yow!

Even the mighty Moloch innocently moaned. "No harm. No fou-ow!"

Both Rosemary and Regan took a second and thought about their next step. They smiled at each other and looked on the trio with forgiving eyes.

"I guess it's cool." Rosemary said. "We were freaked at first."

"Yeah," Regan agreed. "Let's be nicer to each other next time."

"Hey, we're down with that." Balthazar agreed too. "Hey boss! High five!"

The devil smiled and stretched his hand out, waiting for their fair share of a high five. Moloch, with his hand still covered in molten tar, slapped against his boss' awaited hand. Lu hollered a high pitched yelp that echoed all throughout the tower. He tearfully waved his hand back and forth as the trio, Lilith, and the Gravely sisters all united with playful laughter.