The Devil’s Intern Part 5

Lu, Joshua, and the group toured the rest of Inferno Tower. They walked around each of the levels, giving their intern a thorough walkthrough of the facilities. Next was their art collection. While Joshua liked art, viewing the graphic depictions of demons slewing souls, graffiti of demons bathing in painted blood, and murals of melting skeletons wasn't something he wanted to look at.

Joshua decided to wander off on his own. The others continued gawking at their twisted art. The boy soon found himself in a strange hallway where torches were the only light source. The hallway was vast and empty. No painting, no statues, no furniture. Bare as a desert with the exception of a large glass window that stretched from one end of the hall to the next. 

He tried peeking behind the glass. It was empty too. Only shadows engulfed most of the room. Was this a room to keep something in, like with the man in the cells below, Joshua wondered. He tried tapping on the glass to test this theory.

"Whoa there, lil' feller!" A voice cried out.

Joshua jumped and turned to face the caller. Standing next to him was a slime-green scaled demon dressed in dirty, blue overalls. His eyes were like a snake's, yellow and sinister. Three horns poked through his dark fedora on top of his bald head. What surprised the boy the most was that this demon was threatening him, but he was smiling. Rather friendly looking, despite his rotten, sharp teeth.

"You don't wanna be tapping on that dar glass." the demon gave a friendly warning, "dey don't like that."

"They?" Joshua asked.

"Well hellhounds of kurs,"

"Hellhounds are real?" Joshua had heard of them before. Mostly from fiction novels that this mother never allowed him to read, but never imagined they could be real. Then again he was in a realm where souls burn. Anything could be real.

"Dey sure are!" the strange demon replied, "Dem dogs are a beauty, I tell ya what. Meanest sons-a-guns too. Seen one fight off twenty scavengers, not get a single mark on it."

The demon then took Joshua's hand, shaking it crazily. "Well shoot, I've gone an forget me mannerisms again. Da name's Botis, by the way. I'm da trainer for dees beasties, just like my pappy before me and his pappy before him."

"How do you train them?" Josh asked, wiping off the grease left on his hand.

"Oh it sure ain't easy. Dey the most dangerous ting in da Inferno next to scavengers. But once you develop a connection wit dem, dey can be sweeter than pumpkin pie. Dat reminds me."

Botis the trainer smacked his fist onto a large button that was placed at the side of a wall. A small alarm sounded and the center of the enclosure opened up. Upon hearing the alarm, Lu and the others that were with him appeared by Josh and Botis' sides. They all eagerly watched behind the glass barrier.

"Did we miss it? Did we miss it?" Lilith hollered. The succubus pulled out her cellphone and started recording a video.

"Miss what?" Joshua asked.

"Botis, buddy." Lucifer said, "You gotta let me know when you're starting one of these. You know we like a good show."

"What show?"

Something was coming up on in the enclosure's floor. It was a large steer chained to a small post that rose from the trapdoor below. The animal stood still, tranquil in its surrounding.

Joshua asked, "What's with the cow?"

"Feeding." all the demons answered.

"The cow?"

The trainer laughed, "You sures are funny, lil' feller."

Joshua gulped hard. A loud dog howl echoed in the distance. He now understood what was going to be fed.

The cow continued standing still, unaware to the encroaching danger. Joshua and the other watched as five sets of evil, red eyes beamed through the darkness. The eyes appeared to be hovering a few feet off the ground; but this only indicated that whatever these hellhouds were, they were all bigger than the steer. They all crept closer and closer to the oblivious steer. They all heard the hounds monstrous growls but could not see their full bodies. Probably for the best.

Joshua quickly shut his eyes and plugged his ears with his fingers, trying to censor out what came next. Yet he still heard the muffled sounds of dogs barking and agonizing screams of the steer that only lasted a couple seconds then silence. He then heard the juicy sounds of meat ripping apart and bones being crushed. 

In his head he pictured the gruesome attack. The alpha had already bit down on the bull's neck while the others tore into its belly. They each took turns ravaging the organs. He picture two of the hellhounds fighting over a piece of leg, or maybe a rib cage. It was hard to tell but he definitely heard two of them fighting about something.

The vile sounds ended. The barking was fading off into the distance, back into the shadows. The boy opened one eye to see the devastation left. He gasped when he saw the steer and the hellhounds were gone. Nothing of the steer remained. All that was left in the center were large, blood stained paw prints — five times the size of any ordinary earth dogs.

All the demons then cheered from the bloody carnage. It appears what Joshua's mother and the scriptures said about them were starting to look correct. 

"Well that was fun," the devil said, "Who's hungry?"