Beauty and the Beast (Complete)

Part 1

Carmen Gravely drove home furiously from work. Today she held all her anger inside while they filmed a new episode of What’s Hot in Brimstone, and again during her studio’s board meetings. Earlier she almost bit at her co-host Marcus Marlow for the last donut. Now her day was done, she took her inner frustrations out on the road. The family van zipped through the streets like she was racing in the Grand Prix. It passed and cut through other drivers on the streets and highways. cursing them off whenever she heard their horns honk. What sort of prediciment could have caused this gentle mother to become Roadzilla?

She and her husband, the devil himself Lu, had an argument earlier today. A tale as old as time when a man and a woman get into an arguement. An age old battle of the sexes of who is right and who is wrong. The girls had already left for school before their argument started, that much Carmen was grateful for. She didn’t need to worry about what effects their argument would have on their daughters during their class time. There was enough already on her plate, like how to confront Lu when she got home.

Home was about half an hour away from the inner cityscape of Brimstone, which gave Carmen plenty of time to think about what she wanted to say to her dear husband. Although Carmen was unsure if she still wanted to saying anything to him at the moment. Being married to the King of Hell, she knew there was going to be plenty of baggage. But after this morning, Carmen wondered how a king can act so immature. She shouldn’t be surprised. Lu was always goofed off while she had to be the responsible and logical adult in their family.

Her cellphone buzzed inside her purse. The words ‘INFERNO’ popped up on the screen. Carmen knew who was calling. Is he calling to apologize? Is he calling to continue their argument earlier? Or is he calling about something stupid again? The more it vibrated, the more she thought about Lu’s behavior, she drove more wildly. Her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter like she was ready to rip it off. More anger boiled inside her, ready to explode like a volcano.

Finally, she had enough. Her hand ripped into her purse and she answered. “What do you want, Lu?” She screamed at her cellphone. 

“Is this a bad time, love?” A friendly English accented voice said on the other line.

Carmen immediately recognized the voice. “Oh, Lilith,” her voice was calmer now. “I’m so sorry about that.”

“No worries, missus,” Lilith’s voice assured her. “So I take it that you and the boss had yourselves a bit of an argy-bargy earlier today, eh?”

“You heard, huh?” Carmen admitted. She was comfortable talking to Lilith about these issues. “Yeah, Lu and I had a fight this morning, and we’re both pretty steamed.”

“Ah come on, love. It can’t be all bad. And it’s probably not worth any heartache between you two, right? You both got two little ones to think about. You don’t want your feud to upset them now, do ya?”

Carmen sighed. “You’re right, Lilith,” she said, knowing that she was grateful to have a friend like Lilith. “Perhaps it’s best to talk things out.” Carmen drove her van into a deep tunnel. “Let Lu know that I’m on my way home right now. Should take about 25 minutes. I’ll drop down in the Helevator and we can talk it out then.”

Static scrambled her phone’s signal. “I... that’s... good...” Carmen could hear every other word from Lilith’s voice. “idea... boss... he’s... you-”

“Lilith, you’re breaking up. I’m going through a tunnel right now. Listen, I’ll be right there shortly. I’ll see you all later.”

Deep within the dephs of Hell was Inferno Tower, Lu’s main office building, where he and his demons would make deals for human souls and torture them during their time of damnation. Now it was empty. Abandoned by its workers in a hurry.

They had not left the Tower. All those that worked in Inferno Tower—including Lilith, Scrugs, Balthazar, Ghuul, and the hulking Moloch—were cramped together inside a hidden bunker. Lilith was on her cellphone, trying to reach out to her queen, Carmen.

“Love, are you there?” she murmured. No answer from the other line. Carmen’s call ended. “Hello? Hello? Oh bugger.”

“Did you warn her?” Scrugs peeped. 

“You mean did I warn her about how her husband’s gone all beastly and started wrecking everything in the Tower like he’s bloody Godzilla?” The demons felt the bunker shake. Something crashed and broke above them, followed by the ferocious roar of a large, predatory monster. “Oh yeah, I think she’s got the bloody message.” Lilith retorted sarcastically.

Part 2

The bunker rattled again. This one was more violent than the last. The demons shuttered at the sound of another loud explosion above them, followed by their ruler, who had since transformed into the monstrous Beast, bellowing a wrathful roar that would echo through their eardrums.

Inside the bunker, Lilith, Scrugs, Balthazar, Ghuul, and Moloch locked themselves deep down, along with hundreds of other demons who worked inside the tower. Contractors, secretaries, magic users, tortureres, factory workers, and even the militant Doomsguard hid underneath as their king tore apart the Tower. “This isn’t good, loves,” Lilith said. “We gotta calm the boss down before the missus gets down here.”

“Well, Lilith, you’re his secretary,” Balthazar spoke up. “And you’re smoking hot. Can’t you use your charms to cool him down, or at the very least your pheromones. You know, have a beauty to tame the beast.”

“Oi!” the purple succubus retorted. “You know me pheromones don’t work on the boss, and they’re certainly not gonna work on him when he’s a beastie.”

Ghuul turned to his giant friend Moloch, “Well, Moloch,” he coaxed, nudging against his friend’s large bicep. “You’re a big guy. You can take on the boss’ beast form, right? Come on, man. Throw some fireballs and earthquakes his way.”

Moloch tilted his head, leaning his good ear to the trapdoor. There was another crash, and another roar. “No,” the giant grumbled. “Got wife and kids to think about.”

Balthazar turned his attention to a small band of soldiers. “Hey Doomsguard!” he called out. “Aren’t you paid for this kind of scenario?”

One of the armor guards spoke up. “Uh, that’s a negative on that, sir,” his voice radioing through his helmet. “We’re not paid to be that kind of expendable.”

“What about Legion?” Ghuul said. “He’s stopped the Beast before. Hell, he made the boss into the Beast. Speaking of which, where is that old tarantula?”

“He’s out of Hell at the moment,” Lilith explained. “Mentioned something about a game of chess with an old friend.”

Another loud crash shook the bunker again. “We’re screwed then,” Moloch growled.

“Who do we have left?” Scrugs asked. Everyone soon turned their attentions at the sole Malebranche demon in the bunker. “ME?!?!” he screeched in fright.

“Thanks for volunteering, Scrugs.” Balthazar said. They all grabbed the short demon and forced him out of their safe bunker. Once outside, Scrugs looked around his new surrounding. What was left of Inferno Tower’s factory floor was reduced to scrapmetal and broken parts. Waste barrels squished like fruit. Forklifts and machines were crushed into oblivion. The walls were smashed into rubble. Some of them were still kept intact, but had large claw marks scrapped all the way through. A whole conveyor belt was engulfed in flames like something blasted it with a large flamethrower. Witnessing the wreckage inside the Tower he worked so long inside made the demon quake uncontrollably.

Scrugs jumped and yelped when he heard another crash come nearby. His dark eyes got a good glimpse of the full body of the Beast and all its terrorifying glory. Blood red scales from snout to tail, bony spikes protruding along its back, massive horns above the brow, and a massive teeth to go along with its massive mouth—and that mouth was matched with a pair of smaller mouths on the sides of his lower jaw. Scrugs nearly soaked his loincloth when he watched the Beast pummel a large machine into smashed scraps. A loud roar from the Beast rocked what was left of the factory.

The enormous monster slowly turned his pointed head. His hellish red eyes locked onto the dwarf demon. Scrugs swallowed hard. “Um, hey boss,” he stuttered nervously. ” It’s me. Your old buddy, Scrugs. Let’s just talk things out, okay?” he watched as the Beast bared his large teeth, followed by a low growl. “I just wanted to say...” the small bat-like imp lunged at the trapdoor, yanking on the locked handle. “LET ME BACK IN! PLEEEAAASE!”

The Beast roared and charged. Scrugs screamed and flew off, flapping his wings as hard as he could while desperately trying to evade the jaws of the Beast. The flying imp crashed through a small window, escaping above the open roads of the Inferno. But the Beast was not far behind. His hulking form smashed through the walls like they were made of cardboard. The Beast chased after Scrugs all the way towards the city of Dis, where unsuspecting crowds of demons were about to feel the full force of his wrath.

Part 3

The Helevator dropped from the cloudy abyss above the Inferno and crashed outside Inferno Tower, still perfectly intact. The crooked doors opened automatically with Carmen Gravely boldly stepping out. Then she halted. No demons came to greet her, much to her surprise. The Tower was abandoned and a complete wreck. Something had torn it apart from the inside, and she had an idea of who or what may have caused that. A thick layer of black smoke surrounded all of Hell. This was something new. Despite a world engulfed in fire, smoke was a rare occurence. And this smoke seemed to originate from Dis, the large capital city of Hell.

“Lu!” Carmen called through the smoke. “Where are you?!” Suddenly, the mortal woman felt the ground beneath her feet shake. Followed by what sounded like thunder.

THUM! THUM! THUM!

A giant shadow moved slowly through the smoke, approaching Carmen’s location. The towering figure stopped and gazed at the lone mortal that stood several meters away. Carmen stared back at the creature. Its full image reflected off her glasses. The sight of the giant creature’s outline in the smoke scared her, but she knew who it was. She has only seen her husband’s alternative form once before. Often she wondered why Lucifer chose to become this uncontrollable, rampaging monstrosity when he turned against Heaven during the Heaven-Hell War. But perhaps she wondered if it was even his choice to begin with.

The Beast stood idly by, watching Carmen with his glowing red eyes. These eyes pierced through the smoke like a lighthouse through fog. His wrath from earlier eased away when he first spotted his queen. He was remembering now, regaining control of his body and mind from the monster within. Yet he was still bitter from their argument earlier that day, giving her a low growl.

Then that growl became a gag. Something was caught in its throat. The Beast scratched at his massive throat with his clawed hand, forcing whatever it swallowed to one of his mouths. The larger mouth opened and the Beast coughed loudly like a cat coughing out a hairball. Carmen watched as the Beast spat out a round rock that landed near her. Carmen flitched when the odd anomaly unfolded itself, revealing to be Scrugs, still alive and covered in saliva. “Oh, my queen,” the exhausted demon spoke. “Thank Satan you came. We’re saved.” Once relieved by Carmen’s presence, he fainted.

Carmen stood her ground, showing no fear when she faced the Beast. “Alright, let’s talk now!” she called to him.

The Beast lumbered towards Carmen. Another layer of smoke shrouded around before the Beast disappeared. Out of the smoke was Lucifer himself, quickly marching towards his queen. He looked as angry as this other half. He then met eye to eye with his wife. “You want to talk? Fine!” Lu shouted angrily. “I’ll start...” Carmen crossed her arms and waited, giving a scowl that matched the devil’s. Suddenly, that anger was gone. Lu knelt to one knee and took his queen’s hand. “I’m sorry about earlier.” regret was in his voice. “Things got completely out of hand between us. I promise you, babe, I won’t ever lose my cool like that to you ever again.” he then smiled a small but sympathetic smile.

It seemed to win Carmen over as she smiled softly too. “Oh, honey,” she said. “I’m sorry about earlier too.” Carmen then picked her husband up and the two embraced with a kiss.

Scrugs immediately woke up. “Hey guys! It’s all over! They made up!”

Another trapdoor, much like the one that was a gateway to the Tower’s secret bunker, opened wide. All the demons that stayed hidden piled out and cheered for the couple.

“We’re so glad this bloody awful feud is over,” Lilith said.

“What were you two arguing about anyway?” Scrugs asked.

Lu thought about it for a minute. “You know what?” he said. “I don’t remember. Do you, honey?”

“Me?” Carmen retorted. “I thought you remembered.”

“No,” Lu defended. “I’m pretty sure you remember.”

“Why is it always up to me to remember everything?” Carmen was starting to get angry. “After all, you were the one who started the fight.”

“Oh, so that’s how it is?” Lu growled. “Blame me because it’s easy to blame the Devil for everything!”

The two started bickering again, much to the disturbance to all the demons. This new argument could only lead to one thing. “Quick, everyone!” Lilith alarmed her fellow demons. “Back to the bunker!”

#sinsofthefather #fiction #fantasy #comedy #horror #demons #devil #hell